Attorney speaks out on SAFE Act Supreme Court case

ALBANY, N.Y. – The attorney for hundreds of plaintiffs who lost their Supreme Court case against the SAFE Act spoke out Thursday.

A state Supreme Court judge denied an application for a preliminary injunction to the SAFE Act Wednesday. Judge Thomas McNamara said “concerns raised should be issues raised in elective process. This is not a judicial issue.”

Governor Andrew Cuomo passed the act waiving the three-day aging. Bob Schulz is the attorney for the plaintiffs who filed suit. He said waiving the aging is unconstitutional, and the judge did not understand his full argument.

“He said that we were arguing that the Second Amendment protects our right to carry or own any weapons,” he said. “That's not what we argued. We argued that the Second Amendment protects our right to own weapons that are in common use.”

But Pastor Charlie Muller of Victory Church said the ruling upholds important safety measures that aid in his fights to get weapons off the street.

We're in this. We're in it every single day,” he said. “We're taking illegal guns when they come in. It's not registered. It's in a vacant building. It's out there in the wrong hands.”

Muller said he just wants to keep the streets safe, but Schulz believes Cuomo violated the three-day waiting period by signing the SAFE Act into law as an emergency issue.

“The law making process is severely broken,” he said.

Schulz said he will take the case to the Court of Appeals.

“Well, the people should take heart because finally we're at the court,” he said. “The highest court, and it's only that court that can clarify or overrule the earlier decision that the lower court judges are hiding behind as they dismiss these cases.”

Schulz said he is confident the Court of Appeals will overturn the ruling. Cuomo's office declined to comment.

Schulz said he will take the case to the Court of Appeals. Cuomo's office is not commenting on the ruling.